New Delhi, 3rd March, 2010: Toyota Motor, introduced incentives on Tuesday as it tried to restore consumers' confidence in its vehicles after three big recalls. Toyota has estimated that it lost 18,000 sales in the United States last month following the major recalls.
The deals, described as the "most far-reaching sales program in its history," include no-interest financing for five years on eight models and low lease rates on nine. Toyota also is giving past customers who buy a new Toyota up to two years of free scheduled maintenance "as a thank-you to our customers for sticking with us," said Robert S. Carter, general manager of the Toyota division.
Carter maintained that most of the company's customers had stuck with the company but acknowledged that the recalls had hurt Toyota's ability to attract new buyers.
"I can't come up with an incentive program that makes that go away," he said on a conference call.
The biggest beneficiary might have been the Ford Motor Co., which reported a 43 percent sales increase for February and surged ahead of General Motors to become the country's top-selling automaker for the month - but barely.Ford topped GM by 471 vehicles, or six-hundredths of a percentage point of market share.
Toyota's sales fell 9 percent in February and are down 12 percent this year. The company has recalled more than 8 million vehicles, including 6 million in the United States, to fix problems with the accelerator pedal or, in the case of the Toyota Prius and two other hybrid cars.
